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Friend Leanne Knight told DevonLive: "It's the end of an era. Vic Rogers was a legend. Tales of Vic were like a truckers folk-law.

"As long as there’s a group of truckers chatting about the good old days and the good old boys the legend of Vic will live on."

Friend and organiser Danny Beckwith, 50, who organised the unusual funeral convoy, said he had known Victor since he was a boy: "Victor might have seemed a bit of a rough fella, but he was a man's man who told it like it was - tough on the outside but soft underneath.

"He was one of those ones who, if you're in trouble, he was coming to help you.

Danny said that after the initial shock of losing Victor he wanted to do something as a final tribute: "I thought - I've got to get all the boys together, the lorries from Cornwall because that's where he came from, and all of us from Devon."

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Victor, who was nicknamed The Mule and had lived for the past 12 years in Newton Abbot, leaves a widow, Annie, and family.

Danny thanked the undertakers who accompanied the unusual funeral cortege.

He said: "The hearse followed behind the recovery lorry. They had to be there for legal reasons but they sat back and let us take control.

"At the wake at Lifton Gardens it was electric when all the lorries and a lot of people in their cars lined up for 30 seconds of everybody on their horns. There was definitely men there with tears in their eyes as I was myself. It was very emotional.

"It would have been right up Victor's street."

Nikki Grant paid this tribute: "He travelled the country with a smile of great pride. Now he drives the streets of heaven with a smile of great pride. RIP Victor Rogers (aka The Mule). Thank you for so many laughs and memories. Will love you forever."